Guiding Teenage Angst through Cooking

Hi Everybody! I'm back. For the time being. I took some time off from Diamond in order to study for a large exam that I'm hoping will help to further my health-related career. Lets cross our fingers that it went well (I'll be receiving my scores in about a month). In any case, besides studying, here's the low-down on what I've been up to this summer:


After graduating from college at the University of California, Santa Cruz (go slugs!) in 2005, I decided to take some time off and got a job teaching seventh grade math and science at an urban school district in the San Francisco Bay Area. The experience was difficult, but ultimately proved to be very rewarding as I learned to become a more effective teacher towards the end of my second and last year. I ended up forming deeply meaningful relationships with many of my students, with whom I still keep in touch. Each relationship is as different as the next, with each student interacting with me in different ways and for different reasons. Below is an account of one of my students and our first experience together with organic food.


When I met Krystal* in my second year of teaching, she was a seventh grade student with a reputation for trouble. She was moody and often defiant, once walking out of my classroom, leaving campus altogether. This was a big problem: Krystal was never consistently present in class, voluntarily or otherwise, making it difficult for her to do well in school even if she had wanted to. While most teachers in the already challenging working environment had very little patience for Krystal's attitude, I never took it personally, reminding myself that there was likely an underlying reason for her poor behavior. As I came to know her, eventually I found out that she had suffered the loss of two very important people in her life due to gun violence and had volatile relationships with other adult figures. With this in mind, I've tried to be consistent and supportive, encouraging her whenever I can to focus on her schoolwork. Surprisingly, she's responded: just last year, Krystal improved her grades to mostly Bs and Cs.


This summer, I invited Krystal to spend a week with me, my mother and brother, at our home near Moss Landing. We've live in small but cozy rental just steps from the beach. For Krystal it's like being on vacation. I've also opportunistically used this time as a vacation from junk food - a McDonald's regular and a hot Cheetos fanatic, Krystal's poor eating habits show physically. I've discussed the health impacts of her dietary decisions openly. Careful not to be too imposing, I try to make the topic of good nutrition fun by encouraging her to look through cookbooks herself, pick out recipes that seem tasty to her, and help her to prepare the meal for both of us.


The first recipe we tried was an easy one from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: steamed clams, a baked potato, and a simple salad with homemade vinaigrette (as opposed to the calorie-packed supermarket dressings). Since I've never made clams, I was tickled by how absolutely quick, easy, and TASTY, they were: red onions, parsley, and a cup of wine in the bottom of a large pot, clams and voilà: less then 10 minutes later, we had a low-calorie, real gourmet meal. As the two of us feasted on the outside patio as the sun went down, we did not hold back from gorging ourselves with the satisfaction of a job well done.


The next night we were more ambitious. We decided to check out the menu suggestions at the back of the Bittman book for ideas. Ultimately, we settled on halibut skewers (halibut, portobello mushrooms, onions, bacon, bay leaves, spice), a grilled shrimp and tomato salad, rice pilaf, and grilled asparagus. Krystal was responsible for the skewers and asparagus and did an excellent job preparing them. When it came time to grill them, we had a bit of a scare when the fish juices incited a small fire in the pit. It was easily contained though and the fish turned out beautifully - soft, tender, and flavorful. We invited Krystal's seven-year-old twin sisters and a few of my friends and feasted once more on the patio before heading down to the beach for a bonfire and smores.


What was so rewarding for me was to watch Krystal take initiative to choose, plan for, and prepare a recipe with almost zero input from me. Subconsciously, I think we both recognized the power in that simple exercise of self-sufficiency and we're both better off for it. The unspoken trust and respect that was gained from working side by side in the kitchen as near equals, with me stopping only to offer bits of advice when warranted, seemed to be symbolic of a larger process in play: the teenage experience, with all its downturns and pitfalls, a road to be traveled by an inexperienced driver that can be successfully managed with just the right balance of trust, respect, and guidance.

*Name changed to respect anonymity